The second phase, involving final mapping and assessment data on each of the estimated 90,000 parcels, will cost $900,000. A contract provision allows for the subtraction or addition of $5.60 for each parcel below or above the estimated parcel count.

Commissioner John H. Parker said that "The last several weeks we've been negotiating the cost and finally came up with a 12 percent reduction in overall costs from $1,398,000 to the final $1,215,000 figure for the total package and a reduction from $354,000 to $315,000 for the first-phase work."

Parker moved to accept the total-package proposal, which will lock the $900,000 into place and eliminate a potential inflation of that cost.

Commissioner chairman James Cadue said the project will take from three to five years. He added, "We definitely feel it will benefit the individual taxpayers and probably give them a reduction in their tax billing by reductions in tax millage. No one pays more or less than his or her fair share."

Cadue said that during the last 15 years "there has been a most significant increase in development in the county, and hopefully through this comprehensive reassessment wewill get all of these properties on the tax rolls."

He said the reassessment will be beneficial to taxpayers and unlike past equalization programs that often doubled taxes for property owners.

The last reassessment of the county's properties, by Cole, Layer, Trumble of Chicago in the late 1960s and early '70s, had not accomplished what the commissioners hoped and ended in lawsuits.

In other business, the commissioners agreed to back Pocono Hospital's proposed $15-million renovation and expansion program in response to the hospital's request for their support for a certificate of need for the project.

Robert Fisher, hospital administrator, said in a letter that the project will be financed through a fund-raising drive and a bond issue. Groundbreaking is scheduled for June next year.

The project includes modernization of the hospital's main building, replacement of 24 beds and expansion of the obstetrical and nursery areas. No new services will be added in the project, and there will be a reduction in patient beds from 242 to 237.

Commissioners said they will recommend to the hospital that "serious consideration" be given to adding certain advanced medical treatments, including kidney dialysis, to the project plans to meet the needs of county residents.

Commissioners accepted the resignation of East Stroudsburg tax collector James Harmon Jr., effective June 30. The borough will name a replacement for his unexpired term.

Capital expenditures were approved for: data processing, $275 to purchase a 300-capacity tape rack for the computer room; county jail, $299 for two four-drawer file cabinets and $41 for the emergency light in the control room.

Under maintenance, commissioners approved an expenditure of $1,725 to cover a recent installation of a red-light alert in each of the two courthouse elevators. The light indicates when another red light has been activated.

The commissioners reappointed Bonnie Tollison to a three-year term on the advisory board for the Tri-County Mental Health/Mental Retardation agency.